Circassian scholars call for creation of single alphabet

A con­fer­ence took place in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, on Sunday on the preser­va­tion of the Cir­cass­ian language. Par­tic­i­pants voiced a hope that a long-running issue over the creation of a single alphabet for East and West Cir­cass­ian, the language’s two primary dialects, could soon be resolved.

The con­fer­ence was organised by the Inter­na­tion­al Cir­cass­ian Asso­ci­a­tion and the Kabardino-Balkarian State Uni­ver­si­ty, with more than 200 academics from Russia, Europe, and the Middle East attending. The main issue discussed was the uni­fi­ca­tion of the West Cir­cass­ian (also known as Adyghe) and East Cir­cass­ian (Kabardian) scripts.

One of the con­fer­ence organ­is­ers, Aminat Shogenova from the Kabardino-Balkarian State Uni­ver­si­ty, told OC Media that par­tic­i­pants called for the creation of a joint working group to develop unified standards for Cir­cass­ian, as well as common textbooks.

‘We do not say that we need to change the entire alphabet, we say that we need to come to a single alphabet, with con­sid­er­a­tion of the gram­mat­i­cal features of [both dialects]’, she explained.

Another of the organ­is­ers, Murat Tabishev from Kabardino-Balkaria’s Ministry of Education, told OC Media that the literary East and West Cir­cass­ian languages emerged during the Soviet period after the Cir­cass­ian people were divided into three ter­ri­to­r­i­al entities — Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay–Cherkessia, and Adygea.

He added that in reality, East and West Cir­cass­ian were dialects of one language, but with the estab­lish­ment of admin­is­tra­tive borders between the ter­ri­to­ries, they became stan­dard­ised inde­pen­dent­ly of each other.

West Cir­cass­ian enjoys official status in Adygea, while East Cir­cass­ian is used in Karachay–Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria.

Calls for a ‘speedy resolution’

In September 2016, at the 11th Congress of the Inter­na­tion­al Cir­cass­ian Asso­ci­a­tion in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria’s head, Yury Kokov, suggested they ‘work hard to create a single Cir­cass­ian script’.

Tabishev said that this helped in organ­is­ing the event, but that ‘scholars have been working on the problem of uni­fi­ca­tion and related issues for a long time already’.

At a meeting of the Inter­na­tion­al Cir­cass­ian Asso­ci­a­tion in Ankara in July, members of the Cir­cass­ian diaspora abroad called for a more speedy res­o­lu­tion of the long-running alphabet issue.

Kabardino-Balkaria’s par­lia­ment adopted a law designed to create a unified alphabet in 2002. Since then, scholars from Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay–Cherkessia, Adygea, and the diaspora have worked on agreeing a single standard.

According to Aminat Shogenova from the Kabardino-Balkarian State Uni­ver­si­ty, the West Cir­cass­ian side initially reacted neg­a­tive­ly to the ini­tia­tive, and so the law did not yield results.

According to Tabishev, scholars from Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay–Cherkessia have now asked the head of Adygea, Murat Kumpilov, to accel­er­ate the work at the Adygean State Institute of Human­i­tar­i­an Studies. ‘As far as I know, a general agreement from the Adygean side has already been received’, he added.

Tabishev said that scholars from Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay–Cherkessia ‘have already taken the first steps, and now Adygea should also speak up’. The Inter­na­tion­al Cir­cass­ian Asso­ci­a­tion plans to hold the first inter­na­tion­al Cir­cass­ian con­fer­ence on 21–22 September in Nuremberg, Germany, under the motto ‘What unites us’.

‘An attack on national identity’

A number of school teachers at the con­fer­ence expressed concern about recent amend­ments to Russia’s law ‘On Education’, adopted by the State Duma on 25 July, regarding the teaching of indige­nous languages in Russian schools. The changes mean that learning indige­nous languages in Russia’s regions cannot be com­pul­so­ry.

But Tabishev insisted that even after the amend­ments, ‘the number of hours spent teaching native languages in schools in Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay–Cherkessia, and Adygea remains the same’.

The amend­ments were sharply crit­i­cised by a number of diaspora groups in Turkey.

In August, over 100 Cir­cass­ian, Chechen, Ossetian, and Kazan and Crimean Tatar diaspora groups in Turkey signed an appeal in defence of indige­nous languages in Russia.

The appeal called for all possible legal mech­a­nisms to be used to preserve the languages of the peoples of Russia and demanded Russia’s Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court repeal the amend­ments.

The groups also expressed their intention to address the UN, Council of Europe, and other inter­na­tion­al organ­i­sa­tions. According to them, the amend­ments were ‘an attack on national identity and assim­i­la­tion’.

On 23 July, linguists from several leading uni­ver­si­ties and research insti­tutes in Finland, Estonia, Hungary, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Denmark, and other countries spoke out against the law.